It's My Party
by Old Fiat
Summary: Nobody was four hours late for a party. Amber/Corny
1. Part One: The Party

It's My Party

**It's My Party**

Old Fiat

Hooray! Our first dab into the Hairspray section! We've been meaning to write this story for a while, so… yeah. :D

Just so you know, here is the way the writing is split between the two of us:

Old Fiat n. France: Edits and helps plot out the story

Old Fiat s. Italy: Writes and helps plot out the story.

Enjoy!

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_It's my party and I'll cry if I want to  
Cry if I want to, cry if I want to  
You would cry too if it happened to you…_

--"It's My Party" by Lesley Gore

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**Part One: The Party**

Amber placed one of the pale, shell pink envelopes on Corny's dresser and looked around the dressing room for a moment. She gazed at the coat rack and decided that, if Corny came to her party, he should wear his black cotton-wool blend suit coat. Nothing else would go with the decorations.

Taking her small stack of pink envelopes with her, she left the dressing room and went over to where the rest of the council kids were milling around, waiting for Corny, Maybelle or Velma to come over and tell them what to do.

"Hi Brad!" she said with a large, white smile. "You look great today!"

In truth, he looked absolutely foul. Fortunately when they were on air they wore clothes picked by the studio, but it wasn't the same with practices. Why did he think that a red and white checked shirt would look good tucked into nasty, pulled-up-to-your-armpits khakis? Was he blind or stupid? But she continued to smile at him so he wouldn't be able to tell what she was thinking.

Brad seemed shocked by the compliment, but attempted to take it in her stride.

"Thanks Amber!" he said, smiling back at her, a little weary. What did she want that would make her compliment him?

"Anyway," she went on. "I was wondering if you'd like to come to my party this Saturday. It'll be really fun!" She held out another pale pink envelope and he took it, albeit reluctantly.

"Thanks," he said, turning the stiff card over in his hand. "I'll see you then."

She flashed him a dazzling grin and walked over to Link and Tracy.

"Howdy Link," she said, smoothly cutting off Tracy halfway through her sentence about the Stricken Chicken. "I was wondering if you'd like to come to my party this Saturday!"

"You mean tomorrow?" he asked, raising one eyebrow at her. Honestly, Link could be such a bonehead.

"Yes—tomorrow," she said, not showing an ounce of emotion. She handed him an envelope and then turned towards Tracy. Since she was inviting everyone else, she supposed that she should invite Tracy as well. "Would you like to come too, Tracy?"

Tracy felt a little put off by Amber's large, white grin, but politely took one of the envelopes.

"Thanks Amber," she said, smiling back at her. Tracy and Link watched as Amber went through the same routine with all the other council kids.

"I'm betting she'll only invite the white kids," Link whispered in her ear and she giggled. But they were soon shocked to see her march up to Seaweed.

"Hiya Seaweed," she said, her smile still fixed in place even after having to deal with Noreen and Doreen. "Would you like to come to my party?"

He seemed even more surprised than Brad.

"You want me to come?" he asked doubtfully.

"Yeah," she said, holding out a card. "Would you like to go?"

"Uh… sure…" He took the offered envelope and watched her suspiciously as she walked over towards Inez.

He was soon joined by Tracy and Link and the three of them looked at each other.

"Do you think she really wanted us the come?" Tracy asked, looking down at the envelope in her hand. Neither of the boys answered.

"Nah," said Seaweed, shaking his head. "She probably wouldn't even care if we didn't turn up."

Amber smiled happily at Duane as she handed him a little pink envelope. This was going to be one of the best parties ever.

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"Are all your refreshments set out?" asked Velma, rushing about the living room to make sure everything was in place.

"Mom, everything's ready," said Amber, putting her hand on her mother's arm. "It'll be great. Have fun with Uncle Robert."

"I'm sorry I won't be here for your Sweet Sixteen party. I don't want to go to this opening, but Robert was so damn adamant…" she sighed.

"Relax, mom." Amber smiled at her. Despite how finicky her mother could be about her appearance and relationships, she truly did care for her daughter. "I'll be fine. I do wish you could be here, but you'll have fun with Uncle Robert."

Velma glanced up at the clock on the mantel.

"I've got to go now. Have fun with the council kids. Make sure there's no '_funny business_', alright?"

"Of course, mom," Amber walked with her mother to the front door. "I'll see you tonight."

"Have fun, socialize," Velma gave her a brief kiss on the cheek before pulling open the door and stepping outside.

"Bye," Amber waved after her for a few moments and then closed the door.

She looked around the empty house. It would be another fifteen minutes before anyone started coming. Sighing, she flopped down on the red sofa in the living room and picked up an old Vogue magazine that was sitting beneath the coffee table.

Silence hung heavily in the building, making it difficult to concentrate on the articles of clothing. She ended up just flipping through the pages, occasionally glancing over one of the advertisements and wondering how the outfits would look on her body, before placing it beneath the coffee table one more.

She looked up at the clock above the mantel and frowned. The other council kids should've started arriving ten minutes ago. Maybe they just weren't very punctual people. Their parents probably hadn't raised them to be on time or early for all events.

This could explain the absence of most of the kids, but it didn't make sense for Corny. He was usually early for everything, unless it was taking place before noon. She wondered about this for a few seconds until she decided he must've just gotten tangled up in some conversation with Maybelle about choreography or something.

Taking a few deep breaths, she ran her perfectly manicured hands over the puffy, red satin skirt of her dress. She'd look horribly stupid if she came to the door to greet her guest with a wrinkled skirt.

With that thought in her head, she stood up from the couch and began to pace the living room, humming under her breath. Seconds passed like hours, minutes passed like days. Pacing wasn't going to make the time pass any quicker.

She bent down in front of the television and turned it on. It was the WYZT evening news report. Smiling at her from the screen was Charles Kent, the newscaster, along with his pretty blonde co-host, Gloria McKenzie. He was glancing over his notes, searching for the next story he was supposed to report, as Gloria made a few dull comments about the last one.

Amber stared blankly at the screen, hoping they would talk about something interesting, but the next story was about some robbery at some store she'd never gone to in her entire life. Who cared about some robbery? But she continued to watch it, glancing up at the mantel clock every few moments. After about thirty minutes, Kent turned it over to the weather man, James Jacobs.

Who would be forty minutes late for a party? Amber certainly never would be. Five minutes, maybe, on the outside—but she was a very punctual person for things she wanted to attend and who wouldn't want to attend her party?

Biting her lip, she continued to watch television.

Six o' clock came and went.

Seven passed without complaint.

Eight seemed to crawl by as Kent and Gloria began chatting about crab fishing.

Suddenly, it was nine o' clock and nobody was there but Amber. Four hours. _Four hours_ late. She switched off the television and got up. She swore, kicking the coffee table. Nobody was _fours hours_ late.

Why was nobody there?

She stormed into the kitchen. There sat her cake on a expensive china platter—covered in white and pink icing and neatly decorated with sixteen candles and piped letters saying _Happy 16__th__ Birthday_. Tears welled in her eyes. It was so clean, so untouched.

Giving a shout she grabbed the platter and threw it down the tile floor. The china shattered and the cake flew everywhere, splattering all the cupboards and a lot of Amber's dress.

She stood there for several minutes, breathing hard, before she burst into tears. They slid down her cheeks and dotted the floor and her dress. She flung her hands up to her head and dug her fingers through her beehive, destroying its rock hard shape.

How could they do this?

Why did she ask herself that? She knew the answer. They didn't care for her anymore. She was being thrown away like old rubbish now that she was no longer the most popular councilette. Tracy and Inez had both stolen that title from her after the Miss Teenage Hairspray competition.

Her heart pounded as she tugged on her stiff locks of blonde hair. She seemed to be convulsing. No one had come. _No one_. Her whole body shook. They'd all abandoned her for a human whale and some Negro girl.

What had she done to make them suddenly prefer them to her? She'd never been blatantly cruel to anyone. She'd always shown at least a touch of politeness with every person—even Tracy, on occasion.

What had she done?

Finally, the clouds of anger, hurt and frustration left her mind. Looking down, she realized that the cake wasn't going to lift itself off the tile and put itself in the trash so she began to clean it up off the floor. When it had been scrubbed off all the surfaces and the shards of china had been picked up and thrown away, she left the kitchen to change and wash all the hairspray out of her hair.

Velma came back home at around eleven—tired and a bit tipsy, but eager to hear about Amber's party. She walked into her daughter's bedroom, still in her fancy, black cocktail dress.

"So…" she said, sitting at the foot of the bed. Amber didn't move but continued to face the opposite wall. "How did the party go?"

"It went really well," said Amber in her usual chipper voice, but still didn't face her. "We put on all these great records and everyone was dancing and it was really fun."

"Well, I'm glad you had a good time. You socialized with everyone, right? Mix and mingle?"

"Yup," Amber nodded.

"You can give me all the great details tomorrow morning. See you then."

And Velma left, closing the door softly behind her.

Amber looked out the window at the flickering, yellow streetlamps as a single tear slid down her cheek.

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**Please review. They're our sustenance. :D**

**-Old Fiat s. Italy and n. France**


	2. Part Two: The Plan

It's My Party

**It's My Party**

Old Fiat

Thanks for the reviews on the previous chapter! We seriously didn't expect to get any. And sorry for the late update, this took a while to get perfect (and I will give nothing but to my lovely readers). :D

I hope you enjoy this!

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**Part Two: The Plan**

"Okay! That was our dance of the week shown by Sketch and our own star councilette, lil' Inez Stubbs." Corny beamed at the camera as he spoke, only looking away on occasion to see if there were any cue cards he was supposed to read. He quickly looked over the council and his co-host, Maybelle Stubbs, to make sure they were listening to what he was saying. Many awkward and embarrassing moments had been shown live due to somebody not paying proper attention. All of them were standing up straight, smiles wide. All, except Amber.

This threw Corny off a little because usually Amber was so desperate to be the star of the show that she was the only one who was listening closely enough to pick up cues or applaud at the correct time. At that moment, however, she was staring off into space and frowning slightly. Her eyes were glazed and a little red for some reason.

"Unfortunately, that's all we have time for today, so we'll see you all on Thursday." Quickly signaling to the council to gather around her, Maybelle and Corny stepped out in front of the podium.

"Bye!" they all sang towards the camera, waving, until the buzzer went off.

Corny was used to the council dispersing after the show was aired; some of the kids went home and others changed out the suits or dresses given to them by the studio before leaving, but Amber usually hung around because she had to wait until six or seven when Velma could drive her back to their home before returning to the studio once more. Yet that day, Amber was one of the first of the council to wander away from the soundstage. He watched her as she walked away. She was still standing with her usual air of pride, but there was some thing different about it—like there was no _real_ pride in it. She chatted half-heartedly with Tammy for a moment before walking into the room which Velma had dubbed Amber's for waiting in until she could go home.

This would've been normal, except that Amber almost never went into that room unless she had a lot of homework that she needed to turn in (if she wanted to stay in school, that is). He understood that she didn't have to tell him this for it to be true, but it was the middle of summer! He jogged after her before Velma could catch him.

"Amber," he said as he shut the door behind him. Amber jumped up from her desk to look at him. The room itself was pretty empty—only one or two posters were stuck to the wall and just one photo sat framed on the desk of the entire council from the previous year.

"What do you want?" she asked in a voice strangely like her mother's.

"I just thought you looked odd at the end of the show there. Is anything the matter?" he seated himself on the edge of her desk and she gazed up at him angrily.

"'_Is anything the matter?_'?" she repeated in a voice that was almost a hiss. "'_Is anything the matter?_'? I'll tell you what's the matter! Why weren't you at my party?"

Where did that come from?

"Woah," he said, holding up his hands to make her stop. "What party?"

"_My_ party!" she said, stomping her foot against the smooth concrete floor. "My _Sweet Sixteen_ party!"

"You had a Sweet Sixteen party?" he asked, incredulous. "Why wasn't I invited?"

"You _were_ invited, stupid!" she shouted, face red in fury. "And you never showed up!"

"I wasn't invited to any party! And don't call me stupid."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, Amber!"

She rolled her eyes and marched out of the room. He followed her into his own dressing room.

"Hey, why're we—"

"Look on your dresser!"

He looked at her, confused. What on earth was she talking about? He never looked at his dresser, unless he was having his make up done for the show. Deciding to follow her order, he turned towards it.

There, leaning against a set of cuff links, was a small, shell pink envelope.

He reached forward and picked it up. Inside was a matching card with said in plain black letters:

_You are invited to Amber VonTussle's Sweet Sixteen! Saturday, 23__rd__ of July, five o' clock…_

Following was the address and directions from the studio.

Corny finished reading it and turned to face Amber, whose arms were crossed as she looked down at her white sandals. Guilt twisted in the pit of his stomach, making it difficult to think.

"I'm really sorry, Amber. I never look at my dresser normally. Did you have fun with your other friends?"

She looked as though she was trying to give a sarcastic laugh.

"I invited every member of the council," she said, taking deep breaths, trying to hold back her tears. "And none of them came."

"Oh God…" His hands shook as he wrapped his arms around the small blonde. Her tears soaked through his light-weight suit-coat to his white cotton shirt. The guilt was now stabbing his insides vengefully. This was probably going to be awkward. Corny had never been good at dealing with crying people. "I'm so sorry. Why didn't they come?"

"I don't know," she sobbed, clutching the front of his coat. "But nobody came… I sat around waiting until nine…"

"Your mom was there though, right?"

Amber shook her head and buried herself further into his chest. Her carefully sculpted flip was starting to get messed up, but Corny didn't say anything about it.

"She'd gone to an opening at some art museum…" she said, voice muffled. "I was home alone."

"Look Amber," he said, pulling her off of himself. "How about you go get washed up and I'll meet up with you back in your little room-thingy, okay?"

She nodded, wiping her eyes on the backs of her hands. He handed her his handkerchief, just to be chivalrous, and she took it before leaving for the bathroom.

Anger flared up inside Corny from someplace deep inside of him. He stormed out of the dressing room.

"Council meeting. Now!" he shouted and walked over to an empty space behind the soundstage, hoping all the kids were still there. Luckily, they were.

They all followed him, seating themselves on the floor around him.

"Where's Amber?" asked Shelley, looking around for the only missing council member.

"She's in the bathroom," said Corny, trying hard to keep his cool. "In fact, this meeting is about her."

Brad's hand shot up out of the mass of teenagers.

"Yes, Brad?" asked Corny, turning towards him.

"Are we gonna kick Amber out of the council now?" asked Brad, a large smile spread over his face. "Like we did in that meeting about Brenda?"

"No!" Corny shouted—hands clenched into tight fists. He could hardly think through the blood rushing furiously through his veins. "No, we're not kicking Amber out of the council, but we do need to discuss something. How many of you were aware that Amber was holding her birthday party last Saturday? Raise your hand if you were."

A little nervously, all the kids raised their hands.

Corny nodded slowly—he'd suspected as much.

"So… who actually _went_ to the party?"

All hands went down. Corny watched as the council members noticed the lack of raised hands and began to look around. Guilt was etched into each one of their faces.

"I thought so," he said, lips pressed together. He took a deep breath. "Did any of you stop to think that maybe she would notice even if _one_ of you didn't show up? Let alone,_ all_ of you?"

"But we thought the others would come!" protested Link, his eyebrows furrowed. "It wasn't some kind of plot!" The other kids nodded in agreement. Most of them had just assumed everyone else would go.

"I just said that she would probably notice if even just _one_ of you didn't show," said Corny, wondering if they were actually listening to what he said. For once, he didn't care what any of them thought about anything. "When someone invites you to a party, you show unless you have some sort of plausible and sensible excuse."

"Who cares if nobody turned up at her party?" asked Tammy, the girl who Corny knew Amber had considered her best friend since she joined the council. She was gazing at him with glazed eyes, clearly not exactly taking in what had happened. "Nobody really—"

"'Nobody really' what, Tammy?" asked Corny, a murderous tone in his voice.

"Nothing," she squeaked, falling back down to Earth with the icy feeling of fear spreading through her body.

"Better," he said, nodding in satisfaction. "Now, I want all of you to consider this—what if you'd spent all this time preparing your birthday party that you wanted to celebrate with all your friends. You'd invited each of them personally, right? But not one of them actually comes to the party."

A hand came up uncertainly.

"Yes, Fender?"

"My parents don't do birthday parties," he said, nervously.

Corny rolled his eyes.

"Just pretend they do! How would feel?"

"I'd feel…" said Shelley, looking down at her folded hands, "bad." It was the only word she could think of to describe how something like that would feel, but it sank into all the others, making them unable to look Corny in the eye any longer.

"Damn straight," he said, the words coming out before he could think. He still couldn't rid himself of the painful guilt sitting in his stomach, but at least he was making others feel the same.

"Do you want us to apologize to Amber?" asked Tracy. Corny was suddenly unsure that spreading his guilt was a good thing when he saw Tracy's watery eyes.

"I—"

Should they apologize to her? It would probably just embarrass and anger her further to have the council kids pretending to be sorry for hurting her feelings. It would most definitely

"Excuse me a moment," said Corny, holding up a finger and jogging off to the girls' bathroom. "Just wait there!"

Amber was bent over one of the sinks, splashing cold water up onto her face, when Corny came in. She straightened up when she saw that he'd entered. Her eyes and nose were still red and he saw his handkerchief folded neatly on the edge of the sink beside her.

"Hey Amber," he said, a sly smile on his face. "I just had an idea…"

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**What is Corny's idea? Tell us what you think it is and your opinion of the story so far in your review! Or if you don't want to do that, just urge us to update further!**

**-Old Fiat s. Italy and n. France**


	3. Part Three: The Present

It's My Party

**It's My Party**

Old Fiat

So this is the final chapter. I hope you all like it and I apologize for it taking for_ever_. Damn writer's block! It wouldn't get off my desk! Sorry, that was a corny (lol) joke.

Anyway, I just want to thank my writing partner (Old Fiat n. France), my reviewers, _all _my readers (whether you've reviewed or not), Frankie Valli who recorded the song "December, 1963 (Oh What a Night!)" without which I wouldn't have gotten through this last chapter and, finally, one of the coolest chicks around, Lesley Gore, who recorded the song "It's My Party" when she was only about 16.

By the way, I am truly aware that the song "L-O-V-E" only came out in 1965 and not 1962. I didn't have a lot of time to look up other songs I know for dates and stuff.

Enjoy the chapter!

-Old Fiat s. Italy

Ps, Just so you all know, today's the day of our school's play, _The Wizard of Oz_. I am playing Glinda the Good Witch and Old Fiat n. France plays The Wicked Witch of the West. Wish us luck! (Well, actually… don't. XD)

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**Part Three: The Present**

"Howdy Link!"

Link almost jumped almost a foot in the air as he turned around, spooked by the sudden address. Brad and Sketch, to whom he'd been talking before, started as well.

"Oh… Hi Amber," he said, avoiding her gaze. To his surprise, she didn't hit him, but extended a hand with three cream colored envelopes.

"I'm holding another party," she said and though she had a wide, sparkling grin on her face, butterflies fluttered in her stomach. She knew she had to look like a total idiot hosting another party, but she tried to remain calm. Corny had settled everything, or at least he'd said he had… "Would you guys like to come?"

The boys nodded and took invitations. All three of them were remembering what Corny had said after he had returned from girls' bathroom, grinning hugely:

"Alright!" He'd rubbed his hands together excitedly. "Amber is going to host another party this weekend and you will all be there—right?"

The council boys and girls nodded, worried by his wide smile.

"And if any of you do not come, you had better have a damn good excuse. Like… your mom died or something—got it?"

They all nodded again and Corny had nodded in satisfaction before dismissing them and walking off.

Amber nervously went over to each of the council kids during the rehearsal on Wednesday and offered a cream colored invitation. All of them took the crisp envelopes with uncertain smiles. Even some of the more out-going ones, like Seaweed and Tracy, looked a little anxious.

She didn't really know how Corny had managed to convince her that this was a good idea. Actually, now she thought about it, it seemed to be a completely stupid idea. She almost decided to call off the entire party, but then she thought of Corny. Even if she told all the council kids that the party wasn't happening, Corny would somehow manage to convince her to hold it anyway. But whenever she pictured her new party, all she could think of were images of the old one.

Despite her nervousness, when she finished lunch on Saturday, she went into the kitchen and pulled a roll of streamers and a pack of balloons from a drawer near the door labeled _Party_. She would've decorated the night before, or even that morning, but she was worried of what her mother would say. Velma was still blissfully unaware of what had happened at her previous party and Amber preferred to keep it that way. She listened carefully, waiting until she heard the sound of the front door closing before bringing her supplies into the living room.

Corny had already ordered a cake for her from the near-by bakery, saying he would bring it over when he came early to help her decorate. Unfortunately, Amber didn't have the patience to wait for him, so, balancing on the arm of the sofa, she began to string the streamers across the room.

By the time Corny finally arrived, she had already decorated the entire house, including the bathroom.

"What happened to waiting for me to help you?" he asked, laughing a little as he tapped one of the balloons attached to the banister.

"I couldn't wait," said Amber, her voice and her carefully curled hair quivered. "I'm too nervous."

She looked up at him, biting her lip.

"Do you think anyone will really come?"

Slowly, he placed an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. Her hands balled into fists and she bit her lip even harder.

"They'll come," he said confidently, his warm breath tickling her cheeks. "I swear it. And even if they don't, I'm here this time and I'll kill them tomorrow."

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Luckily, the other council members began arriving at five o'clock, so Corny didn't have to carry out his threat.

The first to arrive were Tracy and Link. Five minutes were spent in awkward half-conversation as they placed their presents for Amber on the coffee table and glanced over at Mr. Collins nervously. The stiff semi-silence was broken by Brad arriving with Tammy, Becky, Shelly, Darla and Paulie in a large pack. Soon after came Noreen and Doreen, neatly dropped off by their goofy looking father, close followed by Seaweed, his friend, Stooey, and lil' Inez.

Within thirty minutes, the expensively decorated house was packed with teens. Corny watched in satisfaction as Amber chatted happily with Shelly and Cherry, a long, thin councilette with smooth, chocolate colored skin. He was still angry with most of the council kids, but they were trying to do the right thing. They came at least, and most brought presents.

He grinned even wider as she ripped open the brightly colored paper wrapped around his gift and squealed in delight at the stack of records inside. Stepping gracefully around her guests, she quickly ran over to the cupboard pulled out a turntable.

The strong, rich tones of Elvis filled the house and all council kids whooped.

"Bitchin' present, Corny!" said Link, pulling Tracy away from Inez and Brad. "Let's dance, lil' darlin'!"

Corny was about to ask Tracy why she even bothered with the likes of Link and his clumsy nicknames when Amber caught his eye across the room. She smiled at him, her cheeks pink and eyes sparkling.

They were all in the midst of happily singing along with Nat King Cole's song "L-O-V-E", when the front door opened and Velma Von Tussle walked in.

"What is going on here?" she demanded at the top of her lungs. Everyone turned around and Corny pulled the needle away from the record.

Amber looked at her mother in fear. She had been certain she was not going to be home from the meeting at the studio until nine or ten.

"Mom," she said, approaching the imposing woman in the living room doorway. "How was your meeting?"

"What is the whole Corny Collins' council doing in my living room?" asked Velma, voice tight.

Corny pushed his way through the kids and reached Velma before Amber began to speak.

"Mrs. Von Tussle," he said, earning a raised eyebrow from the middle-aged blonde—Corny never called her 'Mrs. Von Tussle'. "May I speak to you in the kitchen?"

The two adults left and the kids stood in the living room, waiting.

Velma came back a few moments later, her face softened. She turned on Amber, who was standing uncertainly near the doorway.

"Everyone had better be gone by ten," she said, the smallest hint of a smile on her lips. "I'm going to bed."

Amber beamed at her mother as she left. Corny reentered a few moments later.

"May I have this dance?" he asked, a cheesy grin on his face as he mockingly bowed to her.

"Most certainly," she giggled.

After a few moments of being led by Corny, Amber knew that none of the council boys could ever compare to the amazing dancing ability that Corny possessed. His gentle, but firm touch guided her smoothly through complex dance moves, ones she had never performed before. He never lost the beat of the song like Link had on countless occasions and his light touch informed her when to spin without shoving her out under his arms. It was so perfect. She smiled up at him as she slow danced in his arms.

"Corny, what did you say to my mother to make her agree to this?" she asked, a teasing tone in her voice.

"I told her the truth," he said simply. She stopped dancing and gazed up at him in horror.

"You told her the _truth_?" she whispered. "Corny, how _could_ you?"

"What? Amber, she would've found out anyway. She completely understood why you didn't tell her at first. You were embarrassed, but you don't have to be now. Everything will be perfect. Trust me."

She took a deep breath, placed her hand back on his shoulder and looked right into his cool blue eyes.

"I trust you, Corny. Always."

--

"See you later Amber! Swish party!"

"Bye Brad!" Amber waved to her fellow council member before closing the front door. There was one person left in the house and it was Corny, wrapping up the last of what had been a very popular cake.

She joined him in the kitchen just as he slipped the tin foil covered plate into the refrigerator.

"You want me to help you take down the streamers?" Corny asked, his trademark grin on his face.

"Sure," she said. Her dress was rumpled, her palms were sweaty and her hair was on the verge of deflating, but it was one of the best evenings of her life. She'd never had so much fun before.

Compared to the amount of time it had taken to put up the streamers, pulling them down took mere seconds. Soon she was shoving the balls of paper into the trash as Corny placed all the glasses and plates used during the party in the sink.

"So," he asked as they flopped down on the living room couch. "Did you enjoy your party?"

"Yeah," she said happily, fiddling with the hem of her flowered pink dress. "Wasn't it hilarious when Seaweed and Link started singing along with those old Billy Holiday songs?"

"That was so funny," he said, shaking his head at the memory. A silence stretched between them, but there was no discomfort in it. It was a companionable quiet—a moment of calm between two good friends.

"Listen, Amber," said Corny, after a while. She looked at him, her eyes bright. "I think that… Well, I think my present was kind of crumby—"

"It was _not_ crumby!" said Amber. "I love those records."

"But… You know… Anyway, I just want to give you another present. What do you want?"

"Well… What kind of present?" she asked, tilting her head.

"I dunno," he said with a shrug. "Anything, I guess."

She grinned.

"I want a kiss," she said, looking mischievous.

He winked at her.

"You got it, toots," he said and pulled her into the most amazing kiss she'd ever had.

His lips pressed against hers, soft and warm. Electricity shot through her body and she felt something catch in her throat. It wasn't a very passionate kiss, but it still made her heart flutter wildly.

As they broke apart, she felt the blood rush to her cheeks.

"Wow…" she said softly. It was the only thing she could think of to say. They sat for a couple moments in silence once more, her hand in his.

"Amber," he began slowly, his voice a little rough. "This doesn't mean that we're… together or anything, you know that right?" I mean, you're a great kid—don't ever change but… You're more like a best friend."

She looked down at their hands. She wanted Corny—she wanted him _bad_, but she didn't want to force him. They were friends.

She had a friend.

"I understand, Corny," she said, leaning on his shoulder. His grip on her hand tightened for a moment, but then he relaxed again.

"I'm glad you had a good night," he said and his lips brushed ever so lightly against her cheek, sending shivers down her spine.

And with that, he stood up. She followed him, silently helping him into his coat and waving to him as he pulled out of her driveway.

The silvery moon and golden street lamps illuminated the night as she turned back into the house, the feeling of his present still on her lips.

**THE END**

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End file.
